So frustrating!

I will say that growing up in California I always enjoyed the non-member/member dynamic of being a Mormon. There is something about being the minority that can strengthen your commitment to know what you believe and stand by it. The downside to this is living as a minority amongst people that don't believe the same things you do lends itself to situations where you are left out or having to make difficult decisions that aren't fun. It's just life......but it's not always easy.

So now that we are in Oregon and again the minority and we have children that are getting older and participating in more things, we have started to delve into the Sunday activity realm. As Latter-Day Saints we believe that Sunday is the Sabbath day. As such we want to keep that day as sacred as possible. The idea being that it is the one day out of the week that is entirely devoted to our Savior. You would think that one day out of seven wouldn't be hard but I think as Saints we can agree that it isn't always easy to remove yourself from your weekly routines and activities even for one day.

So here is my point. Maddy, Josey, and Lilly have started taking dance classes this fall. They have been going since September. Around the end of October everyone decided that they really don't like dance class and nobody has wanted to go! SO FRUSTRATING! Lilly all but dropped out in November except that I kept trying and trying to take her and persuade her to try it just leaving me exasperated and frustrated and finally I threw in the towel and decided that she just wasn't ready. But Josey and Maddy are a little easier to make them do what I want! So even though they didn't want to go I kept insisting that they finish out the term until the recital in December (anyone see where I am going with this?) I went back and forth about just pulling them out and saying forget it but decided that we would just push forward and hopefully they would love performing and want to keep with it. So now it is recital time......and guess what day the recital is planned for......that's right......Sunday! I can't tell you how annoying this decision has been for me! Because now I have forked over the money for 4 months, not to mention costumes x2 and made my girls participate in something that they haven't been overly enthused about....all for the recital.....on Sunday. The teacher did tell me that they are planning on for next Friday as well at a retirement home but it just about makes me want to move back to Utah!

I debated about just letting them do it but the more Dustin and I talked about it the more I came to agree that it just doesn't set the right precedent for the girls. We really want them to understand the importance of the Sabbath day. Now I am not saying that there aren't situations that may arise where we make an exception to participating in something that we normally wouldn't do on a Sunday but I think especially when they are little and we can make these decisions for them it is the time to hopefully give them the right examples to follow.

Maddy has been deeply disturbed about participating in the recital on Sunday and Josey doesn't see any problem with it. And again I will admit that I go back and forth about it. But at this point the decision has been made and the white tights haven't been bought and we will not be participating. I just wish I had thought to ask earlier or made my plea earlier about the Sunday day in hopes that maybe we could have gotten a different day planned. SO FRUSTRATING!